Gift Tax Calculator 2026

2026 and 2025 gift tax limits

The IRS hasn’t released 2027 figures yet. Starting in 2027, the lifetime exemption rises with inflation each year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which set it at $15 million for 2026 with no expiration date.

How the gift tax calculator works

It shows your federal gift tax, whether you need to file Form 709, and how much lifetime exemption you have left. It doesn’t cover gifts to a non-citizen spouse, gifts to trusts, or Connecticut’s state gift tax.

Do you have to pay taxes on money gifted to you?

No. If someone gives you money or property, it isn’t taxable income, and you don’t list it on your tax return. The gift tax is the giver’s tax, and even givers almost never owe it.

Gifted stock, crypto, or property is different when you sell it. You take over the giver’s cost basis, meaning what they originally paid. Say your uncle bought stock for $5,000 and gives it to you when it’s worth $20,000. If you sell it for $22,000, your taxable gain is $17,000, not $2,000. You also inherit how long he held it, so it’s usually a long-term gain. If the stock was worth less than he paid when you got it and you sell at a loss, your loss is figured from that lower value instead. Ask the giver for their purchase records when you receive the gift.

Gifts from abroad have one extra step. If you’re a U.S. person and receive more than $100,000 in a year from a foreign individual, or more than $20,573 from a foreign company in 2026, you report it on Form 3520. You still don’t pay tax on it, but the penalty for not reporting is steep.

The annual gift tax exclusion

The annual exclusion is what keeps most gifts off the IRS’s radar. In 2026, you can give up to $19,000 to each person, and there’s no limit on how many people. You could give $19,000 each to your two kids, your niece, and a friend, $76,000 in all, and file nothing.

The limit is per person you give to, per year, and it adds up everything you give that person:

• Cash, checks, and transfers
• Paying their rent, car payment, or credit card bill
• Stock, crypto, a car, or other property, at its value that day
• Selling them something for less than it’s worth (the discount is the gift)
• Forgiving a loan you made them

One catch: the exclusion only covers gifts the person can use right away. Gifts of a “future interest,” like most gifts to a trust, don’t qualify and must go on Form 709 at any amount.

Gift splitting for married couples

Married couples get two annual exclusions, so together you can give $38,000 to each person in 2026. There are two ways to get there:

• Each of you gives $19,000. If each spouse gives from their own money, neither of you files anything.
• One of you gives $38,000 and you elect gift splitting. The IRS treats the gift as half from each of you. You have to file Form 709 to make the election, even though no tax or exemption is used, and your spouse signs a consent on it. Once you elect it, it applies to every gift either of you made to anyone that year.

Gift splitting adds up for families. A couple with three married children can give $38,000 to each child and each child’s spouse, $228,000 a year, without touching their lifetime exemptions.

The lifetime gift and estate tax exemption

Giving one person more than $19,000 doesn’t mean you pay tax. The extra is a “taxable gift,” which you report on Form 709 and subtract from your lifetime exemption: $15 million per person in 2026, or $30 million for a married couple. You only owe gift tax once your lifetime taxable gifts pass that amount.

The gift and estate tax share one exemption. If you use $2 million of it on gifts during your life, your estate has $2 million less to shelter at your death. That’s why Form 709 matters even when no tax is due: it’s the running record of how much you’ve used. Gifts already covered by the higher exemption aren’t taxed later if the exemption ever drops.

Gift tax examples

A $50,000 gift from one parent

• You give your adult child $50,000 in 2026. The first $19,000 is covered by the annual exclusion.
• The other $31,000 is a taxable gift. You file Form 709 by April 15, 2027.
• You owe $0. Your lifetime exemption drops to $14,969,000.

The same gift, split with your spouse

• Each of you is treated as giving $25,000, so $6,000 each is over the annual exclusion.
• Together, $12,000 comes off your lifetime exemptions instead of $31,000. You still file Form 709 and owe $0.

A gift past the lifetime exemption

• A single person who’s never filed Form 709 gives $16,019,000 to one person in 2026.
• After the $19,000 exclusion, $16,000,000 is taxable, which is $1,000,000 over the $15 million exemption.
• Gift tax is 40% of $1,000,000: $400,000, due with Form 709 by April 15, 2027.

Gift tax rates

The federal gift and estate tax rate schedule runs from 18% to 40%. The rates apply to your lifetime taxable gifts, starting from the first dollar, not just to the amount over the exemption. A credit then cancels the tax on everything up to $15 million.

Because the 40% bracket starts at $1 million, all the lower brackets are used up well inside the exemption. So in practice, any taxable gift past your lifetime exemption is taxed at a flat 40%.

Gifts that are never taxed

These don’t count toward your annual exclusion or lifetime exemption, at any amount:

• Tuition paid directly to a school. Tuition only, not books, housing, or fees, and the payment has to go to the school, not to the student.
• Medical bills paid directly to a provider, including health insurance premiums. Paying someone back for a bill doesn’t count.
• Gifts to a spouse who’s a U.S. citizen. If your spouse isn’t a citizen, the first $194,000 a year is tax-free in 2026 ($190,000 in 2025).
• Donations to qualified charities. No gift tax applies, but if you’re filing Form 709 anyway, list them on it. Here’s how charitable donations can also lower your income tax.
• Gifts to political organizations.

529 college savings plans get a special rule. You can put up to $95,000 into one child’s 529 in 2026, or $190,000 as a couple, and elect on Form 709 to spread it over five years of annual exclusions. That uses no lifetime exemption, but it uses up your annual exclusion for that child for all five years.

Form 709: when you have to file

File Form 709, the federal gift tax return, for 2026 if any of these apply:

• You gave someone other than your spouse more than $19,000 during the year.
• You and your spouse are electing to split gifts, at any amount.
• You gave a gift of a future interest, like most gifts to a trust, at any amount.
• You’re making the five-year election for a 529 plan contribution.

Form 709 for 2026 gifts is due April 15, 2027. If you extend your income tax return, the gift tax return is extended to October 15 too, or you can extend it alone with Form 8892. An extension doesn’t extend the time to pay any gift tax you owe. There’s no joint gift tax return. Each spouse who has to file files their own.

If no tax is due, a late or missing Form 709 usually doesn’t bring a penalty, because the late-filing penalty is a percentage of tax owed. The bigger risk is that the IRS’s three-year window to question a gift’s value doesn’t start until you report it, so a missed return leaves the gift open forever. For stock in a private company, real estate, or other hard-to-value gifts, get a qualified appraisal and attach it to the return.